Komodo dragons: luxury cruise in Indonesia

By Gavin Bell 1133AM GMT 09 March 2010

Previous of Images Next Varanus komodoensis is essentially a guard lizard, the world"s biggest, flourishing up to 12ft prolonged from muzzle to tail and weighing scarcely eighteen mill Photo CORBIS Silolona is an accurate reproduction of gaff-rigged schooners that plied the Spice Islands traffic prolonged prior to Europeans incited up in the 16th century Hand-built by normal boat-builders in a mangrove engulf in southern Sulawesi and launched in 2004, she carries up to 10 guest in substantial character and oppulance "Only the dual largest islands have small fishing communities, that equates to there are dozens of forlorn islets, coves and beaches charity a Robinson Crusoe experience"

When I was a boy, I saw dragons. They didnt essentially fly or inhale fire, but in each pick apply oneself they were the things of legends, with razor-sharp claws, fearsome teeth and blazing tongues. Whats more, they lived in an exotic, far afar land and they ate people.

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I was 9 years old when I sat preoccupied by black-and-white images of these grievous creatures, brought to radio screens in the 1950s by a immature David Attenborough in Zoo Quest for a Dragon. It was as if he had trafficked by time and space to a faraway planet. He competence well have done, given the lairs of the Komodo dragons of eastern Indonesia are as remote and tough to reach as they were half a century ago. First you fly to Bali, afterwards catch a internal moody over the islands of Lombok and Sumbawa to a rickety fishing encampment on the horse opera tip of Flores that could be from a Somerset Maugham novel.

There you can licence an old wooden vessel for a outing of anything from 3 to 6 hours to the desiccated islands frazzled by the object that are home to the gargantuan man-eating reptiles well known locally as ora. The bad headlines is that majority of the vessels for sinecure are frequency seaworthy, couple of if any have lifejackets, and the Sape Strait in that the islands distortion is scandalous for extreme slice tides and whirlpools. The great headlines is, there is an alternative.

Cruising the Java Sea is a dreamboat called Silolona, an accurate reproduction of gaff-rigged schooners that plied the Spice Islands traffic prolonged prior to Europeans incited up in the 16th century. Laden with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, the high-prowed vessels called phinisi followed the traffic winds from the Moluccas to Madagascar and the African coast, returning with cargoes of iron, ivory and slaves.

On Silolona, artificial flavouring are cramped to the Asian alloy cuisine. Hand-built by normal boat-builders in a mangrove engulf in southern Sulawesi and launched in 2004, she carries up to 10 guest in substantial character and luxury, in staterooms estimable of a five-star hotel. One of her stream itineraries, I was gay to discover, is to the land of the Komodo dragons.

Still, the a prolonged proceed to go, and it creates clarity to mangle the tour in Bali, at somewhere similar to Kayumanis Private Estates signature investiture in a coconut timber a short expostulate from the airport. There is no village swimming pool given each of the in isolation villas has the own, along with bath and showering al fresco in perfumed gardens and masseuses on call to ease the aches and heedfulness of long-haul travel. The Zen-like ease is the undiluted heal for jet lag.

Thus refreshed, I suffer the heading moody over cloud-piercing volcanoes to Lubuan Bajo on Flores. From the air, the identical tiwn masts of Silolona are perceivable on top of a squadron of piragua fishing boats in a brook framed by low hills. On closer investigation she looks similar to a mime bandit ship, a floating theatre set for Peter Pan. But this is a sturdy, ocean-going vessel built to German Lloyd specifications.

Constructed of ironwood, and embellished in teak and a radiant red-hued timber called lengua, she is glorious sworn statement to normal boat-building skills and arguably between the majority large oriental sailing ships afloat.

An old salt once spoken that a sailing vessel is the closest thing to dreams done by the hands of man. In this case, it was dreamed up by Patti Seery, an American designer desirous by Indonesian enlightenment and art who had a prophesy of consistent really old and complicated in a vessel flushed with the intrigue of the past but versed with a 680hp turbo-diesel engine to addition her 7 black sails.

"She is about story and traditions," says Seery proudly. "She tells of really old legends." In internal lore, Silolona was a lady of heading beauty whose father saved the universe from tellurian warming by hurling a golden stalk at the sun. His lapse is energetically awaited.

Time starts to delayed as we lift anchor and set journey for the Komodo archipelago, and shortly it seems to be slipping backwards. The islands rising from the Flores Sea are geological dinosaurs, with ochre mountainous country dressed in savannah and dry monsoon forests that see unvaried given the emergence of time.

Only the dual largest islands have small fishing communities, that equates to there are dozens of forlorn islets, coves and beaches charity a Robinson Crusoe experience. The organisation of Silolona supplement utilitarian touches similar to beach umbrellas and cold champagne for proxy castaways deposited on primitive beaches for the afternoon.

The west seashore of Padar is your classical desert-island idyll. Nobody lives there, and frequency any one visits given clever currents have it tough to anchor. While Silolona cruises offshore, we try a unconditional crescent of rose-tinted silt framed by wooded mountainous country and thespian sea stacks. The pinkish paint comes from dejected coral fragments, and the high waves line is a cornucopia of outlandish shells and corals. It is absurdly picturesque, and a French lady in the celebration declares it the majority pleasing beach she has ever seen.

That dusk we decamp barefoot to a sandy inlet on a circuitously island for an aperitif and sushi done from jackfish creatively held by the crew. As dim falls and light glitters on the water, the usually sounds we listen to are of waves lapping on the shore. And the occasional tinkle of a champagne glass.

Patti has an additional provide in store for guest unknown with sailing in pleasant waters stars in the sea. The pretence is to tour around in a proposal vessel at night, route a palm in the inky-black water, and watch the brightness swirling from it similar to a universe of stars. The idealisation philharmonic is the "mermaid effect", caused when women float at night and festive lights pour out from their hair.

By day, the stable coastal waters of Komodo National Park are similarly spectacular. While the islands competence crop up dull and routine during the prolonged dry season, a couple of yards afar lies an nautical universe plentiful with outlandish life.

Eastern Indonesia is eminent for world-class dive sites, and Silolona is entirely versed for divers. In these shoal waters, though, a facade and snorkel are all that are compulsory to try coral reefs of different accumulation and beauty. In this silent, slow-motion realm, one becomes an flier gliding on top of colonies of weird creatures busying themselves in the tasks of survival. Turtles float serenely between shoals of brilliantly-hued fish posing as parrots, trumpets and angels, all unmotivated by the presence.

Occasionally, denizens of the low crop up quickly in the world. On a beach excursion, we are escorted by a propagandize of dolphins leaping out of the H2O around us similar to smiling torpedoes. In a widen of violent water, what appears to be a spin materialises as a spermatazoa whale, floating and violation the aspect with hulking majesty. Above us, as we proceed Komodo Island, a span of sea eagles quarrel over a catch.

At the opening to the Loh Liang ranger hire on Komodo Island there should be a sign, preferably in Gothic script, notice visitors "Here be dragons". One competence pretty design an additional dogmatic "All ye who come in here, desert hope". Disappointingly, there isnt. Instead, there is an report house stipulating that visitors should be accompanied by guides at all times.

Some years ago, an aged Swiss noble abandoned this recommendation and strayed from a organisation being escorted in the hills. All they found of Baron Rudolf von Redding at initial were his camera and eyeglasses and afterwards vestiges of his hair and nails in fire breathing monster droppings.

There are an estimated 2,500 dragons on Komodo and dual beside islands, all of them impersonal predators.

Varanus komodoensis is essentially a guard lizard, the worlds biggest, flourishing up to 12ft prolonged from muzzle to tail and weighing scarcely eighteen stone. It can smell red red blood at 6 miles, run at 14mph, and swallow a goat whole. They do not have great pets.

Our guide, Rinos, armed with a prolonged wooden stick, cheerfully informs us he is not fearful of dragons, usually wary. "It is utterly formidable to envision their attitude," he says. "Sometimes they see so calm, but if they smell red red blood they run really fast."

With this picture in mind, we set off in a in couple of instances compress organisation with Rinos heading the way. The timberland of tamarind and palm trees is home to deer, wild pig and buffalo, all of that underline on the dragons menu du jour. We catch glimpses of deer in sun-dappled clearings and see the meaningful trail of hulk scratch outlines in a dry stream bed. In the woods of Bambi, monsters lurk.

We dont see any, until we proceed the rangers kitchen. At initial we dont mark the 10ft invertebrate sprawled in the dust, but opportunely Rinos does and brings us to a halt. Six feet away, the stationary savage is examination us with black, agog eyes.

It looks each bit as fearsome as the reputation. A scaly hide, nauseous head lifted as if to strike, prolonged yellow tongue flicking the air it is the essence of menace. We shelter to the indeterminate reserve of a wooden staircase, only in time. Rinos prods the belligerent nearby it, and it whips around with lightning speed to confront him. He backs off slowly, and the quadruped resumes the sharp pose.

Next day we revisit the island of Rinca, that is wilder, with proprietor infantry of monkeys. In the play ground bureau I notice dim smears high on a wall. They are the bloodstains of a ranger who was pounded by a fire breathing monster whilst sitting at his desk, and who transient by leaping on to a sideboard and out of a window.

When the guide asks us to stay together on the trail, he is conscientiously obeyed. At one point he gestures towards a network of holes in the ground, that he says is a dragons nest, expected to enclose eggs. We are peering at the site when he points at the back of me and says gently "Dont move." I see around, and find I am being noticed at close buliding by a large dragon. I listen to Attenboroughs familiar, inside tones "The womanlike is at her majority dangerous when guarding her young." The guide raises his hang and instructs me to step solemnly towards him. This takes an eternity, but it appeases ma dragon, who regards my shelter balefully, but stirring.

Surprisingly, there are people vital in the lands of the dragons, and in couple of instances couple of get eaten. They set up fences around their villages, and follow afar any dragons that proceed with sticks and stones but risk stays all around them. Last year, a rancher was pounded whilst picking ripened offspring in a forest, and by the time his screams brought friends using to help, he was passed and half-eaten.

The largest encampment is Kampung Komodo, a fishing village that scratches a vital from catching squid on moonless nights and figure wooden dragons for tourists. It is a lively, accessible variety of wooden houses on stilts and mud streets plentiful with people and the artisans are zero if not inventive. I am offering a forged fire breathing monster wearing a scuba tank, that strikes me as an abominable prospect.

After the fad of close encounters of the frightful kind, it is tranquillity to lapse to the amenities of Silolona. Her enchanting outcome is majority conspicuous at night, when lanterns form pinpricks of light on the dim wood, and illuminate the outlines of her high prow. Then it is as if she is a stage, accessible the opening of actors evidence Captain Hook chasing Peter Pan.

On the last dusk of the Indonesian adventure, the organisation prepares a grill for us on a forlorn beach. Lamps of blazing oil are placed in holes dug in the sand, and internal fishermen stick on the seamen in singing and personification guitars by the light of a campfire. Chinese lanterns are lit, and they deposit high in to the night sky. Silolona, her lights stimulating on the dim water, looks some-more than ever similar to a vessel of dreams.

This is my kind of Zoo Quest.

Essentials

Silolona (see www.silolona.com) is accessible for in isolation licence for up to 10 guest from �10,200 per day, together with all meals, scuba diving, pick H2O sports and transfers. Her cruising areas are Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar. Seaplane charters to the vessel are accessible on request.

Flights from London to Bali with Singapore Airlines (www.singaporeair.com) begin at �698 return.

Kayumanis Private Estates (www.kayumanis.com) has villas at Jimbaran, Bali, for �525 per night, together with breakfast, and at beachfront Nusa Dua for �365 per night.

All the on top of can be requisitioned by Private Label Worldwide (01628 771171, www.privatelabelww.com).